argumentative essay on 4 day school week

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Four-day school week: Research suggests impacts of a condensed schedule vary by student group, school type

To help recruit teachers, many U.S. schools have moved to a four-day schedule. We look at research on its effect on students and schools.

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by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource July 15, 2024

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We updated this piece on the four-day school week, originally published in June 2018, on July 15, 2023 to include new research and other information.

More than 2,100 public schools in 25 states have switched to a four-day school week, often in hopes of recruiting teachers, saving money and boosting student attendance, researchers estimate.

Small, rural schools facing significant teacher shortages have led the trend, usually choosing to take off Mondays or Fridays to give employees and students a three-day weekend every week. To make up for the lost day of instruction, school officials typically tack time onto the remaining four days.

In some places where schools made the change, school district leaders have marveled at the resulting spikes in job applications from teachers and other job seekers. Teacher shortages, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, have plagued public schools nationwide for decades.

“The number of teacher applications that we’ve received have gone up more than 4-fold,” Dale Herl , superintendent of the Independence, Missouri school district, told CBS News late last year.

The impact on students, however, has not been as positive. Although peer-reviewed research on the topic is limited, focusing only on a single state or small group of states, there is evidence that some groups of students learn less on a four-day schedule than on a five-day schedule.

A new analysis of student performance in six states — Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming — finds that students who went to class four days a week, as a whole, made less progress in reading during the academic year than students who went five days a week. Kids on a four-day schedule earned lower reading scores on a spring assessment known as the Measures of Academic Progress Growth, on average.

However, the authors of the paper, published last month, also found that the condensed schedule had little to no effect on the rural students they studied, on average. Schools located in towns and suburbs, on the other hand, saw student performance drop considerably after adopting a four-day week.

The authors also discovered differences among student groups. For example, Hispanic students going to class four days a week made less progress in math during the school year than white students on the same schedule. White students made less progress in math than Native American students during the 11-year study.

“For policymakers and practitioners, this study addresses previous ambiguity about the effects of four-day school weeks on academic outcomes and provides evidence supporting concerns about four-day school week effects on student achievement and growth, particularly for those implemented in non-rural areas,” write the authors, Emily Morton , Paul Thompson and Megan Kuhfeld .

In the spring before the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 662 public school districts used the schedule — up more than 600% since 1999, Thompson and Morton write in a 2021 essay for the Brookings Institution. That number climbed to 876 during the 2022-23 academic year, they told The Journalist’s Resource in email messages.

In addition to studying the schedule’s effect on student achievement, researchers are also investigating its impact on other aspects of school operations, including education spending, student discipline and employee morale. To make the research easier to find, the University of Oregon’s HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice has created the Four-Day School Week Research Database .

Anyone can use the interactive platform to sift through research completed as of May 2023. It’s worth noting that most research in the database is not peer-reviewed journal articles. Seventy of the more than 100 papers are student dissertations, theses and other papers.

If you keep reading, you’ll find that we have gathered and summarized several relevant journal articles below. To date, the scholarly literature indicates:

Some schools cut instructional time when they adopt a four-day schedule.
The impact of a four-day school week differs depending on a range of factors, including the number of hours per week a school operates, how the school structures its daily schedule and the race and ethnicity of students.
The condensed schedule does not save much money, considering employee salaries and benefits make up the bulk of school expenses. In a 2021 analysis , Thompson estimates schools save 1% to 2% by shortening the school week by one day.
Staff morale improves under a four-day school week.
Fighting and bullying decline at high schools.

Both Thompson and Morton urged journalists to explain that the amount of time schools dedicate to student learning during four-day weeks makes a big difference.

“It’s pretty critical to the story that districts with longer days (who are possibly delivering equal or more instructional time to their students than they were on a five-day week) are not seeing the same negative impacts that districts with shorter days are seeing,” Morton, a researcher at the American Institutes of Research, wrote to JR in late 2023.

In a follow-up conversation with JR in July 2024, Morton pointed out that parents like the four-day schedule despite concerns raised by education scholars. In interviews with researchers, she wrote, “parents mention that they appreciate the additional family time and perceive other benefits of the schedule for their children, and they overwhelmingly indicate that they would choose to keep a four-day schedule over switching back to a five-day schedule.”

Morton would not recommend schools adopt a four-day schedule if their main aim is saving money, boosting student attendance or recruiting and retaining teachers. Research findings “do not provide much support for the argument that four-day school weeks are delivering the intended benefits,” she wrote to JR.

Keep reading to learn more. We’ll update this collection of research periodically.

——————–

A Multi-State, Student-Level Analysis of the Effects of the Four-Day School Week On Student Achievement and Growth Emily Morton, Paul N. Thompson and Megan Kuhfeld. Economics of Education Review, June 2024.

Summary: This study looks at how switching to a four-day school week affects student achievement over the course of the school year in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. A key takeaway: On average, across those six states, students on a four-day schedule learned less during the school year than students who went to class five days a week. However, students in rural areas fared better on that schedule than students in “non-rural” areas.

Researchers studied the scores that students in grades 3-8 earned on an assessment called the Measures of Academic Progress Growth, administered each fall and spring to gauge how much kids learned over the course of the school year. The analysis uses 11 years of test score data in reading and math, collected from the 2008-09 to the 2018-19 academic year.

Researchers found that students who went to school four days a week, as a whole, made smaller gains in reading during the academic year than students who went five days a week. They also earned lower scores in reading on the spring assessment, on average.

When researchers looked at the data more closely, however, they found differences between students attending rural schools and students attending schools located in towns and suburbs — communities the researchers dubbed “non-rural.”

Although adopting a four-day schedule had little to no impact on kids at rural schools, student performance fell considerably at schools in non-rural areas. Those children, as a whole, made less progress in reading and math during the academic year than children attending non-rural schools that operated five days a week. They also earned lower scores in both reading and math on the spring exam.

“The estimated effects on math and reading achievement in non-rural four-day week schools are ‘medium’ and meaningful,” the researchers write, adding that the difference is roughly equivalent to a quarter of a school year worth of learning in the fifth grade.

Researchers also discovered that student performance at schools with four-day schedules varied by gender and race. At schools using a four-day-a-week schedule, girls made smaller gains in reading and math than boys, on average. Hispanic students made less progress in math than white students, who made less progress in math than Native American students.

“The estimated effects on math and reading gains during the school year are not ‘large’ by the developing standards used to interpret effect sizes of education interventions, but they are also not trivial,” the researchers write. “For the many districts and communities who have become very fond of the schedule, the evidence presented in this study suggests that how the four-day school week is implemented may be an important factor in its effects on students.”

Impacts of the Four-Day School Week on Early Elementary Achievement Paul N. Thompson; et al. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2nd Quarter 2023.

Summary: This study is the first to examine the four-day school week’s impact on elementary schools’ youngest students. Researchers looked at how children in Oregon who went to school four days a week in kindergarten later performed in math and English Language Arts when they reached the third grade. What they found: Overall, there were “minimal and non-significant differences” in the test scores of third-graders who attended kindergarten on a four-day schedule between 2014 and 2016 and third-graders who went to kindergarten on a five-day schedule during the same period.

When the researchers studied individual groups of students, though, they noticed small differences. For example, when they looked only at children who had scored highest on their pre-kindergarten assessments of letter sounds, letter names and early math skills, they learned that kids who went to kindergarten four days a week scored a little lower on third-grade tests than those who had gone to kindergarten five days a week.

The researchers write that they find no statistically significant evidence of detrimental four-day school week achievement impacts, and even some positive impacts” for minority students, lower-income students, special education students, students enrolled in English as a Second Language programs and students who scored in the lower half on pre-kindergarten assessments.

There are multiple reasons why lower-achieving students might be less affected by school schedules than high achievers, the researchers point out. For example, higher-achieving students “may miss out on specialized instruction — such as gifted and enrichment activities — that they would have had time to receive under a five-day school schedule,” they write.

Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Older Adolescents: Examining Impacts of the Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School Emily Morton. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, June 2022.

Summary: Oklahoma high schools saw less fighting and bullying among students after switching from a five-day-a-week schedule to a four-day schedule, this study finds. Fighting declined by 0.79 incidents per 100 students and bullying dropped by 0.65 incidents per 100 students.

The other types of student discipline problems examined, including weapons possession, vandalism and truancy, did not change, according to the analysis, based on a variety of student and school data collected through 2019 from the Oklahoma State Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics.

“Results indicate that 4-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by approximately 39% and per-pupil fighting incidents by approximately 31%,” writes the author, Emily Morton , a research scientist at NWEA, a nonprofit research organization formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association.

Morton did not investigate what caused the reduction in bullying and fighting. She did find that moving to a four-day schedule had “no detectable effect” on high school attendance or student scores on the ACT college-entrance exam.

Only a Matter of Time? The Role of Time in School on Four-Day School Week Achievement Impacts Paul N. Thompson and Jason Ward. Economics of Education Review, February 2022.

Summary: Student test scores in math and language arts dipped at some schools that adopted a four-day schedule but did not change at others, according to this analysis of school schedule switches in 12 states.

Researchers discovered “small reductions” in test scores for students in grades 3 through 8 at schools offering what the researchers call “low time in school.” These schools operate an average of 29.95 hours during the four-day week. The decline in test scores is described in terms of standard deviation , not units of measurement such as points or percentages.

At schools offering “middle time in school” — an average of 31.03 hours over four days — test scores among kids in grades 3 through 8 did not change, write the researchers, Paul N. Thompson , an associate professor of economics at Oregon State University, and Jason Ward , an associate economist at the RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization.

Scores also did not change at schools providing “high time in school,” or 32.14 hours over a four-day school week, on average.

When describing this paper’s findings, it’s inaccurate to say researchers found that test scores dropped as a result of schools adopting a four-day schedule. It is correct to say test scores dropped, on average, across the schools the researchers studied. But it’s worth noting the relationship between test scores and the four-day school week differs according to the average number of hours those schools operate each week.

For this analysis, researchers examined school districts in states that allowed four-day school weeks during the 2008-2009 academic year through the 2017-2018 academic years. They chose to focus on the 12 states where four-day school weeks were most common. The data they used came from the Stanford Educational Data Archive and “a proprietary, longitudinal, national database” that tracked the use of four-day school weeks from 2009 to 2018.

The researchers write that their findings “suggest that four-day school weeks that operate with adequate levels of time in school have no clear negative effect on achievement and, instead, that it is operating four-day school weeks in a low-time-in-school environment that should be cautioned against.”

Three Midwest Rural School Districts’ First Year Transition to the Four Day School Week Jon Turner, Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe-Zarain. The Rural Educator, 2019.

Juvenile Crime and the Four-Day School Week Stefanie Fischer and Daniel Argyle. Economics of Education Review, 2018.

Abstract: “We leverage the adoption of a four-day school week across schools within the jurisdiction of rural law enforcement agencies in Colorado to examine the causal link between school attendance and youth crime. Those affected by the policy attend school for the same number of hours each week as students on a typical five-day week; however, treated students do not attend school on Friday. This policy allows us to learn about two aspects of the school-crime relationship that have previously been unstudied: one, the effects of a frequent and permanent schedule change on short-term crime, and two, the impact that school attendance has on youth crime in rural areas. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that following policy adoption, agencies containing students on a four-day week experience about a 20 percent increase in juvenile criminal offenses, where the strongest effect is observed for property crime.”

Staff Perspectives of the Four-Day School Week: A New Analysis of Compressed School Schedules Jon Turner , Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe – Zarian . Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2018.

Abstract: “The four-day school week is a concept that has been utilized in rural schools for decades to respond to budgetary shortfalls. There has been little peer-reviewed research on the four-day school week that has focused on the perception of staff that work in school districts that have recently switched to the four-day model. This study collects data from 136 faculty and staff members in three rural Missouri school districts that have transitioned to the four-day school week within the last year. Quantitative statistical analysis identifies strong support of the four-day school week model from both certified educational staff and classified support staff perspectives. All staff responded that the calendar change had improved staff morale, and certified staff responded that the four-day week had a positive impact on what is taught in classrooms and had increased academic quality. Qualitative analysis identifies staff suggestions for schools implementing the four-day school week including the importance of community outreach prior to implementation. No significant differences were identified between certified and classified staff perspectives. Strong staff support for the four-day school week was identified in all demographic areas investigated. Findings support conclusions made in research in business and government sectors that identify strong employee support of a compressed workweek across all work categories.”

The Economics of a Four-Day School Week: Community and Business Leaders’ Perspectives Jon Turner , Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe – Zarian . Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2018.

Abstract: “The four-day school week is a concept that has been utilized in rural schools in the United States for decades and the number of schools moving to the four-day school week is growing. In many rural communities, the school district is the largest regional employer which provides a region with permanent, high paying jobs that support the local economy. This study collects data from 71 community and business leaders in three rural school districts that have transitioned to the four-day school week within the last year. Quantitative statistical analysis is used to investigate the perceptions of community and business leaders related to the economic impact upon their businesses and the community and the impact the four-day school week has had upon perception of quality of the school district. Significant differences were identified between community/business leaders that currently have no children in school as compared to community/business leaders with children currently enrolled in four-day school week schools. Overall, community/business leaders were evenly divided concerning the economic impact on their businesses and the community. Community/business leaders’ perceptions of the impact the four-day school week was also evenly divided concerning the impact on the quality of the school district. Slightly more negative opinions were identified related to the economic impact on the profitability of their personal businesses which may impact considerations by school leaders. Overall, community/business leaders were evenly divided when asked if they would prefer their school district return to the traditional five-day week school calendar.”

Impact of a 4-Day School Week on Student Academic Performance, Food Insecurity, and Youth Crime Report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Office of Partner Engagement, 2017.

Summary: “A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) utilizes a variety of data sources and analytic methods to evaluate the consequences of proposed or implemented policy on health. A rapid (HIA) was chosen to research the impact of the four-day school week on youth. The shift to a four-day school week was a strategy employed by many school districts in Oklahoma to address an $878 million budget shortfall, subsequent budget cuts, and teacher shortages. The HIA aimed to assess the impact of the four-day school week on student academic performance, food insecurity, and juvenile crime … An extensive review of literature and stakeholder engagement on these topic areas was mostly inconclusive or did not reveal any clear-cut evidence to identify effects of the four-day school week on student outcomes — academic performance, food insecurity or juvenile crime. Moreover, there are many published articles about the pros and cons of the four-day school week, but a lack of comprehensive research is available on the practice.”

Does Shortening the School Week Impact Student Performance? Evidence from the Four-Day School Week D. Mark Anderson and Mary Beth Walker. Education Finance and Policy, 2015.

Abstract: “School districts use a variety of policies to close budget gaps and stave off teacher layoffs and furloughs. More schools are implementing four-day school weeks to reduce overhead and transportation costs. The four-day week requires substantial schedule changes as schools must increase the length of their school day to meet minimum instructional hour requirements. Although some schools have indicated this policy eases financial pressures, it is unknown whether there is an impact on student outcomes. We use school-level data from Colorado to investigate the relationship between the four-day week and academic performance among elementary school students. Our results generally indicate a positive relationship between the four-day week and performance in reading and mathematics. These findings suggest there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement. This research has policy relevance to the current U.S. education system, where many school districts must cut costs.”

Other resources

The Education Commission of the States offers a 50-state comparison of public school students’ instructional time requirements. For example, students in Colorado are required to be in school for a minimum of 160 days each academic year while in Vermont, the minimum is 175 days and in North Carolina, it’s 185.
The State of the American Teacher project offers insights into how teachers feel about their jobs and the education field as a whole. In early 2022, RAND Corp. surveyed a nationally representative sample of teachers, asking questions on topics such as job-related stress, school safety, COVID-19 mitigation policies and career plans. Survey results show that 56% of teachers who answered a question about their attitude toward their job “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with the statement, “The stress and disappointments involved in teaching aren’t really worth it.” Meanwhile, 78% “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with the statement, “I don’t seem to have as much enthusiasm now as I did when I began teaching.”
Opinions about the four-day school week vary among school board members, district-level administrators, school principals and teachers. These organizations can provide insights: the Schools Superintendents Association , National School Boards Association , National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals .

Looking for more research on public schools? Check out our other collections of research on student lunches , school uniforms, teacher salaries and teacher misconduct .

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

Common Arguments for and Against the Four-Day School Week

The number of four-day school weeks (4dsw) in Missouri has risen considerably in the past few years: from 34 in the 2017–2018 school year to 152 in the 2022–2023 school year. Based on my own compilation of district calendars, there appears to be around 170 for the 2023–2024 school year—although those numbers are not final at this time.

While typically a 4dsw district is a small, rural district, that could be changing in Missouri. The Independence School District in Kansas City just began its first semester using a 4dsw this year. The district had over 13,000 students in 2021–2022, which is over 10,000 more students than the second-biggest 4dsw district, Warren County R-III. It will be interesting to see if more suburban and urban districts follow Independence’s example.

Along with James Shuls, I am currently working on a systematic literature review of the best evidence on the effects of the 4dsw. We’ll get into those findings at a later date. Here, I think it is important to discuss the most common arguments for and against the 4dsw. Specifically in this post, I will list the different arguments regarding how the 4dsw could impact academic achievement.

Pros : How This Could Bolster Academic Achievement

With a longer weekend, students can recharge more and be more attentive in class—leading to instruction hours being more productive.
Additionally in rural districts, less time would have to be taken off to help on the family farm.
Fewer kids would be late to class for doctor’s appointments, driver’s tests, and other necessary errands as families could schedule it on the weekday that school is off.
While there is ample time to discuss these things during school breaks, having built-in professional development days could lead to improvement for some teachers—generating higher academic achievement.
With greater job satisfaction, teachers could be more motivated and help boost students’
Potentially cutting costs from transportation, energy, or food services on the fifth day could allow districts to divert more funds to instructional costs.
Longer class times with a 4dsw means that teachers can more easily use different teaching methods like small-group discussions as opposed to mainly lectures—potentially leading to more active participation and academic growth.
Fewer substitute teachers are needed, as teachers can schedule appointments or recover from sickness on off days.

Cons: How This Could Decrease Academic Achievement

A longer weekend means less repetitions per week of material, which may make it harder for it to “stick.”
50% of schools that use a 4dsw report being completely closed on the fifth day, while 30% offer some sort of remedial or enrichment activity on that day.
We all saw what happened to students’ scores when they were not routinely in-person at school.
Many claim that attention spans have shortened in society. If a 4dsw involves longer school days, there may be more hours where students are not paying attention.
Many times, 4dsw have about 3-4 less hours in school per week —harming academic achievement.
This could be a particular problem for Missouri which has chronic absenteeism .
This can serve to increase stress on students.
Teacher retention could decrease . One fewer day of school, that is one fewer day to earn additional income from after- and before-school programs.
Studies show a 4dsw could be linked to increased, as older students can have an unsupervised dayoff, leading to students focusing less on school or not being in school at all.
For students with little at-home support, less time in school is more harmful to them than others.

Research should be able to give us a better idea the average effect of the 4dsw on student achievement. Whether the overall effects are positive or negative, it seems clear that the 4dsw will not impact all students in the same way. These issues are important to consider when evaluating the 4dsw, and James and I are excited to present our findings in the near future.

argumentative essay on 4 day school week

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12 Pros and Cons of a 4 Day School Week

When Friday rolls around each week during the school year, many parents face the same situation. The kids groan, complain about getting out of bed, and struggle to get through the morning routine. Getting to school on-time or making it out for the bus is a constant battle. To avoid this issue, many school districts have considered shifting to a 4-day school week.

The benefits of going to a 4-day week for schooling is that it offers teachers and students an additional day for rest every week. More rest then equates to dealing with less stress over the course of a school year. Students feel less pressure because they have more time to study at their own pace at home, especially in the later grades.

Shifting to this schedule does have certain disadvantages, especially for working parents. For the parents of younger students, an additional full day of daycare may need to be scheduled every week instead of a partial day. This leads to added costs that some families, living paycheck to paycheck, may not be able to afford.

Here are some additional key points to think about when looking at the pros and cons of a 4-day school week.

What Are the Pros of a 4 Day School Week?

1. It may reduce the number of discipline referrals for students. The Chattooga County School District in Georgia shifted to a 4-day school week. Over the course of their first year on this new schedule, they reported that the frequency of discipline referrals for their students dropped by 73%. Their students were more focused because they were more rested, which equated to fewer classroom disruptions.

2. It may improve overall student attendance. The Melstone School District in Montana also shifted to a 4-day school week. Over the course of a 2-year period on this alternative schedule, they reported up to a 20% increase in student attendance. There were also reduced sick days requested by their teaching staff. The Chattooga County School District reported similar results from their trial with this schedule as well.

3. Student performance may improve with a 4-day school week. The Peach County School District in Georgia saw that their graduation rates slowly increased year after year when they switched to a 4-day school week. The Oakridge School District in Oregon reported that their test scores improved when they shifted to this alternative schedule as well.

4. There are potential reductions in the financial costs of running a school district. Because school buses are only running 4 days per week instead of 5 days, there is the potential of reducing transportation costs by up to 20% by shifting the schedule. There are potential savings to food programs and other important areas of infrastructure because the school district is closed 1 additional day each week. For school districts struggling with funding issues, the potential savings here could save the budget.

5. Staff recruitment is easier with the 4-day school week for school districts. In New Mexico, 18 of the state’s 89 school districts are currently using this alternative schedule. The districts on the 4-day school week are finding it easier to recruit for the staff they need because they offer the prospect of a 3-day weekend during the school year. That additional day can also be used for staff development time instead of taking away a school day to do so. And the school districts in the state have stable student achievement levels on their standardized tests.

6. Sports schedules are easier to manage. Some school districts shifted to a 4-day week not because of financial needs, but others did so to make it easier to schedule sporting events or after-school activities. Weekend sporting events make it easier to get students to them, especially when they are an away event, because the school day doesn’t interfere on a Friday. Rural school districts find the greatest benefit in this area.

What Are the Cons of a 4 Day School Week?

1. It creates a long school day for students. The requirements for total education time do not change just because a school district goes to a 4-day school week. For the Cove School District in Eastern Oregon, the school day begins at 8am and doesn’t end until 4pm. After-school activities begin at that point, which means some students don’t make it back home until 8pm that night. After 12 hours of being away from home, students struggle to find time to study during the 4-day school week.

2. It changes the holiday schedules for the school district. Students in a 4-day school week are packing 180 days into a condensed 145-day schedule. This means students in a district with this alternative schedule get out later for the holidays than students on the traditional Monday-Friday schedule. It also means that certain holiday vacations, such as Thanksgiving, are extended to a full week, and that can be a scheduling concern for many families.

3. Most parents work a 5-day schedule and struggle to adapt to a 4-day school schedule. Most parents have employment which requires them to be present for 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. Students attending a 4-day school schedule may have requirements for their education that fall outside of the normal work schedule for their parents. This creates challenges for families that range from transportation to daycare and could make it difficult for parents to be fully involved with their child’s education.

4. Many school districts still operate Monday-Friday, even on a 4-day week. The school districts may operate classes Monday-Thursday on a 4-day week (or Tuesday-Friday in some instances), but they are still operational from an administrative standpoint on the off-day. Programs like student tutoring or sports, teacher/parent meetings, staff development, and building maintenance still happen on the fifth day, which negates many of the cost-savings opportunities that the 4-day schedule appears to offer.

5. It is a program for mostly rural and small school districts. In Colorado, 31 of the state’s 176 school districts are currently using a 4-day school week. These school districts are typically in isolated regions, are rural, and have a student body that is fewer than 500 students. The challenges of implementing such a schedule for parents, administrators, and even some teachers have caused some Colorado school districts to return to the traditional schedule instead of the alternative 4-day schedule. Many schools are, in fact, offering year-round services now to accommodate the changing needs of their communities.

6. Even the cost savings of a total shift to a 4-day schedule may be minimal. Granby School District in Colorado shifted to a 4-day schedule for their 1,100 students. Out of a budget of $5.5 million, they saved $206,000.

The pros and cons of a 4-day school week offer many challenges. There are positive outcomes that may occur, but there are negative outcomes that must also be managed. Each community has unique needs which must be met, so there is the possibility of a 4-day week being useful to some districts, but not others. The decision to implement such a schedule must therefore be handled at the local level.

4-day school weeks: Educational innovation or detriment?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, evidence suggests instructional time makes the difference, paul thompson and paul thompson associate professor, school of public policy - oregon state university emily morton emily morton research scientist - nwea.

July 12, 2021

Four-day school week schedules are becoming an increasingly common experience for America’s rural youth. These schedules typically involve increasing the length of the school day four days per week and “dropping” the fifth day. In the spring before the COVID-19 pandemic, 662 districts were using the schedule across 24 states, an increase of over 600% since 1999.

During the pandemic, many additional schools in both rural and non-rural areas adopted alternative school schedules, such as the four-day school week. These schedules generally altered the amounts and proportions of synchronous (in-seat) and asynchronous (at-home) learning students received. School administrators have described the pandemic as a “ catalyst ” for necessary innovations to school schedules and in-seat learning time.

Most of these changes were unprecedented, and their effects on students’ learning and well-being beyond the pandemic remain largely unknown. However, emergent research on the four-day school week may allow us to better assess its effectiveness as a school model in post-pandemic educational policy.

Recent survey findings show that four-day school weeks have been adopted as a way to alleviate budgetary issues, attract teachers, and reduce student absences—issues that the pandemic exacerbated for many districts. Although conditions may be ripe for more schools to turn to such a model in the wake of the pandemic, the research suggests that most of these aims fail to be realized.

Here, we describe the key takeaways from this emerging body of evidence.

Shorter weeks may attract teachers, but don’t expect major cost savings or attendance gains

National and state-specific research finds minimal impacts of the four-day school week on overall cost savings, but it suggests that four-day school weeks may allow school districts greater resource flexibility in the wake of budget shortfalls. The four-day school week may also be used as a form of non-monetary compensation to facilitate instructional cost reductions, as research finds that teachers generally prefer it .

In terms of student attendance, the research to date finds minimal impacts on measures of recorded daily attendance . However, some educators reason that that the four-day week could improve attendance in more nuanced ways undetected by traditional measures of attendance. Most notably, the schedule could decrease the class time that rural students miss for lengthy travel to appointments or extracurricular activities by shifting many of these activities to the off-day.

Maintaining instructional time key for mitigating academic harm

A key concern surrounding the four-day school week is the impact on students’ academic progress. While the evidence regarding overall student achievement impacts is mixed, recent evidence has found primarily negative achievement impacts of four-day school weeks in Oklahoma and Oregon . This has led to a prevailing perception that four-day school weeks are bad for student achievement, a sentiment that was articulated in a recent Education Next piece on the Oregon study . However, the Oregon four-day school week experience is hardly the norm. A more nuanced take of the evidence would suggest that the effects on achievement may depend on whether instructional time stays mostly intact.

In the Oregon study , for example, the stark reductions in math and reading achievement were associated with reductions of three to four hours in weekly time in school. Recent national evidence also suggests that the schools where four-day weeks led to reductions in learning time see the most negative outcomes on student academic progress, with little to no impact on achievement among schools that maintain adequate learning time. Thus, structuring the four-day school week to maintain adequate learning time seems to be the key to avoiding student learning loss and presents a path forward for schools considering this schedule.

Across the country, students on four-day weeks spend about 85 fewer hours per year at school. Some of that time is likely to be lost instructional time, but a portion of it is also non-instructional time, like lunch, recess, and hallway passing time. It’s theoretically possible for a district to maintain its instructional time if it sufficiently extends its school days and reduces the proportion of time spent on non-instructional activities. But in practice, the schedule changes we observe show most schools are reducing instructional time to facilitate the switch.

Few schools with four-day weeks have historically provided any in-school or asynchronous learning opportunities on the off-day. Approximately 50% of schools report being completely closed and only 30% offered any sort of remedial or enrichment activities with any frequency (e.g., regularly or as-needed).

More to worry about than just achievement losses

Lost exposure to the school environment doesn’t only mean missing in-person academic instruction, but also reduced access to school-meal programs, physical activity opportunities, and structured social interactions with peers, teachers, and administrators. A recent study from Colorado finds mixed evidence on health outcomes in schools using a four-day week, but much more research is needed to understand various potential impacts of the schedule on student health.

Worries about child care and unsupervised children on the off-day also abound in discussions of four-day school week implementation. Evidence from Colorado suggests that adolescent students may engage in more criminal activity as a result of the off-day, while a multi-state study found that maternal employment and labor market earnings were reduced as a result of the four-day school week. Despite this evidence, much more research is needed to understand the impact of the four-day school week on family dynamics, relationships, and time use.

The future of four-day school weeks

In the wake of the forced educational innovation during the pandemic, many schools will reconsider their schedules, their policies on in-seat learning time, and synchronous versus asynchronous learning. These decisions could have long-term implications for students’ achievement and well-being.

For districts that have adopted or are interested in adopting four-day weeks, offering asynchronous learning on the off-day could be a creative way for districts to maintain instructional time. Asynchronous learning has been a staple of many pandemic-related educational provision options and, while likely inferior to in-person instruction (as the pandemic learning-loss research suggests), it could be seen as a beneficial supplement to regular in-person school instruction in a post-pandemic educational climate. Incorporating at-home, off-day learning could allow school districts to experience the potential benefits of the four-day school week model while helping to mitigate the achievement losses if in-person time in school is to be reduced.

Increased internet infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas, has facilitated online synchronous and asynchronous instruction during the pandemic. And while there is worry that some of the new infrastructure investment may be temporary , continued long-term investments in connecting remote communities–as suggested in the recent Biden administration’s “ American Jobs Plan ”–may make at-home learning more feasible in the areas where four-day school weeks have generally been adopted.

If four-day school weeks continue to be implemented nationwide, issues related to shifting the burdens of food provision and child care on the off-day onto families are likely to remain substantial in many areas. However, continuing to expand “grab-and-go meal” programs that have been a staple of school-meal provision during the pandemic could be a promising strategy for providing school meals on the off-day for students on four-day weeks in the future. (The USDA recently extended these programs through the 2022 academic year .) The American Jobs Plan also outlines expansions to child-care infrastructure, potentially paving the way for more off-day child-care options for parents in these four-day school week communities.

For better or for worse, four-day school weeks–once dubbed a “ troubling contagion ”–appear to be a fixture of the post-pandemic educational landscape. The evidence to date suggests that how schools structure the four-day schedule is a key determinant in this model’s impact on learning outcomes. Minimizing the loss of instructional time appears to be the best chance at avoiding negative results, though more research is needed to understand the full scope of impacts on students, families, and communities. It also remains to be seen whether other educational innovations in the wake of the pandemic–including remote learning opportunities, greater access to meal programs, and off-day child care–will further the effectiveness of the four-day school week in a post-pandemic world.

4 Studies to Know on 4-Day School Weeks

In the last decade, shortened school weeks have been adopted in more than 1,600 schools in 650 school districts nationwide . Initially seen as a way to cut costs, rural districts in particular have lauded the model as a way to draw in teachers and students looking for more-flexible schedules.

However, implementation of the four-day schedules has varied significantly, and in recent years, the model has sparked heated debates over whether it is consistent with efforts to regain academic ground lost during the pandemic.

In Oklahoma, for example, districts can schedule fewer than 180 days in a school year, as long as they continue to provide 1,080 instructional hours, maintain student academic achievement, and show cost savings—criteria most districts have been unable to meet since the pandemic. That’s led to fights between state lawmakers who want to do away with the shortened weeks and rural education leaders who back them.

As educators and policymakers continue to debate the use of shortened school weeks, here are four studies to know about how they can affect students and schools.

1. Maintaining instructional time is critical

At first blush, a 2022 study of the effects of shortened school schedules in 12 states seems pretty bleak. Nationwide, researchers found significantly lower math and English/language arts achievement at schools using four-day weeks during the time period from 2009-2018 than in schools using a traditional schedule. However, when study author Paul Thompson, a public policy research professor at Oregon State University, and his colleagues dug deeper, they found instructional time made the difference for student achievement. They found no significant differences in academic achievement between districts that used five-day schedules and those that used four-day schedules, as long as the districts with shorter weeks maintained a high or medium amount of instructional time for students.

The significant drops in math and reading achievement were concentrated in districts that had the least instructional time after moving from a five-day to four-day weekly schedule.

“Low time in school in conjunction with the four-day school week appears to be extremely problematic for academic achievement and school districts and states should be cognizant of these negative consequences,” Thompson concluded.

He suggested that schools could experiment with carving out more teaching time through limiting recess, lunch, or study periods, but should be careful to also track how these types of schedule changes affect student engagement and achievement.

2. Cost savings may be in the details rather than the bottom line

While some rural districts have been using shortened schedules for decades, the biggest momentum for the model came following the 2008 recession, when cash-strapped rural districts were looking for ways to cut costs.

That’s still one of the main reasons districts cite for moving to a four-day week, but a nationwide study by the Education Commission of the States suggests education leaders should not hope for a budget miracle from schedule changes. The ECS found that districts using shortened weeks trimmed on average .4 percent to 2.5 percent off their budgets.

A more recent study of Oklahoma districts specifically found those that moved to four-day weeks saved about 2 percent of their budgets, driven by savings in noninstructional costs such as operations, transportation, and food services.

3. Shortened schedules may equal calmer schools

Shortened school weeks may have made Oklahoma middle and high schools calmer and safer, though the model has done nothing to improve students’ attendance or academic achievement.

A study , in the journal of Educational Research and Policy Analysis, tracked student performance over a dozen years and attendance and discipline over nine years, as 411 districts across the state adopted the four-day model for at least some of their schools.

After moving to shortened weeks, schools saw on average a 39 percent drop in bullying and a 31 percent decline in the number of fights and assaults on campus. To put that into perspective, that’s a nearly twice as large an effect as the average 20 percent drop in bullying behaviors seen for common school-based anti-bullying programs.

“You hear over and over again, from students, from teachers, that kids are happier, that there’s increased morale, there’s improved school climate, there’s positive effects on school discipline,” said Emily Morton, a research scientist at the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA and the author of the study.

However, shortened schedules had no effect on discipline problems related to drugs or alcohol, vandalism, truancy, school bus misbehavior, or bringing weapons to school. Likewise, the study found no significant difference in SAT scores, attendance rates and truancy, or disciplinary infractions for vandalism for high school students who attended under shortened weeks.

4. Urban districts may take a hit

While many rural districts have favored shortened weeks, one of the first urban school districts to adopt the model—School District 27J outside Denver—saw academic and community downsides .

A study released in January found that two years after making the schedule change, the district’s implementation costs outweighed its cost savings, while student academic achievement fell significantly. Moreover, retention was 3 percentage points lower for teachers—and 5 percentage points lower for veteran teachers of 15 years or more—in schools with four-day weeks than in similar ones with traditional five-day weeks.

“This finding does not necessarily mean that teachers do not value a [four-day week]. Instead, it suggests that the teachers that [left the district] were unwilling to trade off the higher salaries offered by outside opportunities for the benefits offered by a [four-day week schedule],” researchers concluded.

The researchers found local home values dropped 4 percent in the communities with four-day school weeks compared to those just over the border in a different district with traditional schedules. As a result, homeowners paid $700 to $6,000 more than they would have in property taxes.

Takeaways for administrators

The emerging research suggests school and district leaders should think carefully if they choose to implement shortened school weeks, said Morton of NWEA. She recommended that leaders:

Get community buy-in for the four-day schedule and communicate regularly with both parent and business stakeholders to identify the supports needed. “If parents aren’t gonna be able to support their kids on that extra day, it’s going to be a huge financial hardship for families,” she said.
Audit instructional minutes for each subject and commit to maintaining or increasing instructional time even with fewer days. “Superintendents need to know that on average we do see negative effects of this schedule,” she said, “so make sure that you are not shortchanging your kids on the amount of time that they’re getting in those subjects.”
Closely monitor student achievement and engagement and compare the data both to prior district data and those of surrounding districts. “We’ve seen some evidence suggesting negative effects may compound over time, ... so district leaders need to be very attentive to their own students and, if there’s evidence that this is negatively impacting students, ... switch back,” she said.

A version of this article appeared in the March 08, 2023 edition of Education Week as Four Studies to Know About 4-Day School Schedules

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PROOF POINTS: Seven new studies on the impact of a four-day school week

Jill Barshay SENIOR REPORTER

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HI Ms. Barshay, Do you have any information on what a 4-day school week would do for poor and/or homeless students? Or how underperforming school districts can make real impacts to these students’ learning in a 4-day school week as they lose a day of consistent instruction? Whether rural or urban?

Hi! My group is debating whether 4-day or 5-day weeks are better do you know if 5-day is better, or 4-day.

Hi, my group is also debating on this topic. Im in the 10th grade and go to sycamore high school in BlueAsh, Ohio on Cornell road. I wanted to know how does this effect the to not have a day of school but longer days? Would this harm the sleep schedule or Increase their intelligent and chances for higher test scores?

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What a difference a day makes: the argument for a four-day school week

A study suggests giving students an extra day off improves learning. It could also be a step in the right direction for teacher workloads

The call for a four-day working week is not new. At a time when more and more people say they feel overworked, and increasing numbers are making the switch to part-time hours, the idea has been proposed as a means of tackling both stress and unemployment .

But schools have largely been left out of the debate so far. The idea of students only coming in four days a week rings alarm bells for many who fear a drop in academic performance.

As a former teacher, I was intrigued by a study published this summer, which suggests that pupils’ grades could actually improve with a shorter school week.

The research, conducted by D Mark Anderson of Montana State University and Mary Beth Walker of Georgia State University, looks at the reading and maths results of students in the fourth and fifth grade (years 5 and 6). The schools in question rearranged the week by cutting one day – typically a Monday or Friday – and adding the extra hours to the other four. Teachers’ total working time (and salaries) remained the same.

The four-day school week for students in Colorado was introduced as a cost-saving measure, and the improvements in academic results were the opposite of what had been anticipated, Walker explains.

“We thought that especially for the younger, elementary school kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter,” she says.

“We also thought a longer weekend would give them more of an opportunity to forget what they had learned.”

But the results show that, even for these young students, a four-day school week had a statistically significant positive impact on maths scores (around 7% extra on average), and a possible positive impact on reading scores (although this was not deemed statistically significant by the study’s testing standards).

Walker offers a number of possible explanations, including the idea that longer days might give teachers an opportunity to explore different instructional processes. The study also speculates that a four-day week could lower absenteeism, so that students who have dental appointments, for example, might be able to put them off until Friday and not miss school.

The study’s results are yet to be replicated and critics have raised concerns – particularly about how much subject knowledge students will be able to retain and how well they will be able to concentrate over longer days.

But as someone who taught for 10 years, I can certainly see the potential benefits. It would give young people some much-needed breathing space and, in schools where the fifth day was used for extracurricular activities, students wouldn’t have to choose between academic study and other pursuits.

There is one clear drawback, however: the increased difficulty for parents dealing with the logistics and costs of childcare. This would need to be taken into consideration, but if working weeks were shortened for everyone, then families would actually get to spend more time together.

The benefits for teachers should not be overlooked either. Those who took part in the study reported greater efficiency and better collaboration when they used the fifth day to plan together, with some schools even finding that staff turnover was reduced.

As a teacher who worked part-time (three and four days a week) and full-time, I can see the advantages of having a day free from student contact. Having greater flexibility for personal appointments and meetings would certainly have made my life as a middle manager much easier.

Perhaps most exciting is the potential to use the fifth day to provide good-quality continued professional development and support for teachers where it is (sometimes desperately) needed. Of course, schools would need to be careful that the fifth day didn’t simply become filled with bureaucracy, but it should be possible to prevent that through open discussion with senior management.

The current education system is made up of long stretches of intense work, interspersed with periods of what is laughingly called holiday. A shortened week could improve teachers’ work-life balance by allowing more time for marking, planning and preparation, meaning that holidays and weekends could be times of real rest.

Although workload still needs to be given serious thought, a four-day week could be a step in the right direction for teachers and, the evidence suggests, for their students too.

Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach . Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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19 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of the 4 Day School Week

Even kids who love going to school every day feel like they need the occasional break. From kindergartners to high school seniors, prolonged days of school with only two days to recover can make it difficult to learn. It is a schedule which forces teachers to cram as much data as they can into the shortest time possible.

Kids are finding that the need to stay engaged with their lessons is taking them away from the fun activities of school too. With recess time down at many schools, shortened lunch breaks, and fewer creative “specials” available in the United States, the experience that parents remember while growing up is very different than today’s educational routines.

One idea that is gaining in popularity to correct this issue is the 4-day school week. Although moving from five days to four would require a longer school day, it would also mean that weekends were three days in length. That could mean more family time, more diversification in the classes offered, and additional opportunities for learning.

There are some big advantages and disadvantages of the 4-day school week to consider as communities in the U.S., and around the world, consider this new timing structure. Here are the critical ideas to consider.

List of the Advantages of the 4-Day School Week

1. There are fewer moments of wasted time. A 2006 research study from Yarbrough and Gilman discovered that teachers during a 5-day school week are wasting precious time during their core classes. The structure of school makes it so that it is up to the students to learn instead of having the teachers provide instruction. In 2015, Coastal Conservatory reported that during the average 7-hour school day, over 2 hours of lost educational opportunities exist every day. Moving to the 4-day schedule shifts student movement patterns, reducing the number of lost transition minutes.

2. Students can adjust to the new schedule. An understandable concern for parents, teachers, and students about the 4-day school week is the extended time required to be at school during the day. Two hours must be added to each day to make up for the added weekend day that is given. That means students are at school for 10-hour day instead of an 8-hour day. Five states in the U.S. have pushed for the 4-day week: New Mexico, Montana, Oregon, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Their research has found that young students adapt to the new schedule just as well as the older students.

3. It allows students to create an extracurricular schedule that works. Children who attend schools that have implemented the 4-day schedule are found to be happier about their extra day off. They stay happier than 5-day schedule students throughout the entire academic year. Many of the kids even say they look forward to going to school because it feels productive to them. The issue of student exhaustion tends to be tied to the constant transitions that happen during a compressed schedule, which is reduced during the 4-day week. Then students have more energy to create an extracurricular schedule outside of school for athletics, scouting programs, spiritual activities, and family-oriented options because they have time and energy to do it.

4. The 4-day school week follows the working schedule of many parents. Outside of the extra day off which students have, the 4-day week at school fits into the working schedule of most parents. The school districts which have implemented the 4-day week typically hold class from 7:30 am to 5 pm each day, or from 8 am to 5:30 pm. That makes it possible for parents to drop off their children on the way to work, then pick them up on the way home. That reduces child care costs throughout the week, especially if parents can shift their own schedule to a 4-day, 40-hour week with their employer.

5. School districts can plan after-school events with greater ease. Under the standard 5-day schedule that schools use, most practices for athletics occur in the afternoon. Then you’ll have games in the evening and on the weekend. Depending on the location of the school and the size of the conference or division, schools are often forced to travel during school hours to meet their obligations. By adding an additional day off, more athletic events can be scheduled during non-school hours, which means fewer lessons are missed or passed on as a “self-learning opportunity.”

6. Teacher recruitment is easier with a 4-day school week. The popularity of the 4-day school week became so popular in New Mexico that the state government had to set a moratorium on the practice to determine how beneficial it would be for their students. It is a schedule which is popular with teachers because they get more time with their families as well. Most teachers work outside of their usual 8-hour day anyway, so their schedule isn’t really that different – except for the added day where they can work from home if they wish. Schools with a 4-day week in New Mexico found recruiting to be 20% easier when compared to their 5-day counterparts.

7. It is cheaper to run a 4-day school week for some school districts. Rural school districts often look at the 4-day school week as an option because they are trying to meet tight budgetary constraints. By shifting to this new schedule, districts are able to immediately cut 20% from their transportation budget. That expense is often the largest line-item for a district behind labor costs. If every school district in the United States were to shift to the 4-day schedule, taxpayers would save over $4 billion. At the local level, districts save between $700 to $1,200 per student each year.

8. Students perform better when compared to the 5-day week. Many teachers have discovered that the added daily time for each subject they teach allows for the adoption of different teaching styles. Under the 5-day format, most teachers use a lecture-based teaching style that incorporates self-study from textbooks. Videos are watched, and other media is incorporated to create varied content. The average student retains about 10% of this information. Under the 4-day format, teachers are using small-group discussions and practical practice as teaching tools, which improves the retention rate to over 90%. When students remember the information better, they’re able to score higher grades throughout the year and on their standardized tests.

9. The 4-day schedule reduces discipline issues for schools. According to reporting from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, having fewer days in classes results in some students receiving fewer referrals for disciplinary issues. In Georgia, the Chattooga County School District implemented a 4-day school week and saw discipline referrals decline by more than 70% in their first year on this schedule. That effort resulted in fewer disruptions during classroom time, which created engaged learning opportunities. With the added rest, students were more likely to stay on-task, feel rested, and be focused on the work which was required.

10. It improves the overall attendance rate for students. In the United States, there were 84 school districts which had implemented a 4-day school week in 1995. Most were small, rural districts where students lived on farms and worked agricultural jobs. By shifting away from the traditional 5-day schedule, student attendance rose by more than 20% on the average day. It is a trend that these districts are still seeing today, more than 20 years after they implemented this schedule change.

11. Teachers take fewer sick days with a 4-day school week. Teachers take fewer days off during the school year when they’re working the 4-day school week as well. The extra day off gives teachers more flexibility to engage in volunteer activities, hold down a second job if required, or rest after a difficult week. In Melstone, Montana, administrative attendance went up 20% in the first two years of their 4-day school week plan.

List of the Disadvantages of the 4-Day School Week

1. Shifting to the 4-day schedule could be the exception, not the norm. Although numerous school districts are considering a shift to the 4-day school week, most have not made that change as of yet. If one local district decides to go with the 4-day week while everyone else goes with the traditional schedule, then it may create scheduling conflicts within the region. From athletics to extracurricular activities, many families find that they have very little down time after school because of the 10-hour day that is required. Trying to accommodate other schedules is virtually impossible if your school is the only one in the area on the 4-day week.

2. It doesn’t always save money for schools. In 2003, the school district of Webster Country, KY decided to make the switch to a 4-day schedule. Over the next three years, the district was able to save just 2% on their overall costs – not the 20% that was expected. That gave them a total savings of about $200,000. The Morrow County school district in Oregon experienced a similar outcome, saving just 1.4% on costs, for a total of $45,000 saved. Unless transportation costs are high in the district, there may not be many opportunities to save money with this alternative schedule.

3. The 4-day week works best in small, rural areas only. About 10% of the schools on a 4-day week right now are classified as being urban, suburban, or large. The natural isolation of the rural school districts in the United States is what allows the shift from the traditional 5-day schedule to be effective. In larger districts, there is already flexibility built into the schedule, allowing students and teachers to accommodate their personal needs while still working or learning. There are more activities offered in urban districts, which means more student events are managed, and that limits the gains which are possible. Several urban Colorado districts have stopped using the 4-day schedule, opting to return to the traditional format instead, because of the problems they encountered with it.

4. For many students, the fifth day isn’t a day off. If you’re involved with athletics at school, you will still be going to practices on Monday or Friday, depending on what the extra day off happens to be. Districts keep administrative staff available during the extra day, allowing for the grounds to be open during weekdays. Teacher conferences are held on the day off, as are training days, and the schools must still be cleaned. Even though the idea of a 3-day weekend seems nice, for many employees, it isn’t a reality.

5. The 4-day school week creates a negative impact for families at or below the poverty line. Although parents might have reduced daycare needs for their children with a 4-day school week because only one day of supervision is required instead of five, the hours remain the same. Watching a student for 10 hours over 5 days, or one 10-hour day, results in the same care cost. Only half of parents are able to shift their schedule to the 4-day, 40-hour week with their employer, which means single-parent homes may not see a benefit at all. Until the kids get older and can legally care for themselves, more strain can be placed on families with this schedule instead of less.

6. It can be difficult for students to find after-school employment. In high school, students begin to explore their future career options. They look for employment in their community as a way to earn money and learn vocational skills. The legal requirements for working when you’re under 18 make it difficult for students to find a job that is practical. They must stop working by a certain time on school nights, have caps on the hours they work, and other local restrictions which might apply. Even with a full day free for work, the number of hours allowed during the school year on that day are also capped.

7. Shifting to the 4-day school week might eliminate holiday breaks. To manage the demands of the 4-day school week, many districts have found themselves forced to schedule emergency makeup dates during planned holiday stoppages. This issue is particularly problematic in regions that see a lot of snow each year. If you lose 4 school days because of weather, that means you must replace 40 hours of learning time instead of just 32 hours. For some families, this problem can only be solved by taking their earned vacation time to counter the issue of the weather-related school stoppages.

8. It creates a long school day for some students. Even with fewer transitions, some students struggle to make it through a 6-hour learning day at school. Extending that time commitment to 10 hours for them is a recipe for disaster. Between homework, school, and riding the bus, they might have 12 hours away from home because of their school schedule. On younger children especially, that schedule can lead to fatigue. When kids get tired, that’s when their choices turn toward negative behaviors.

These big advantages and disadvantages of the 4-day school week offer some school districts an opportunity to make budget cuts without disrupting the classroom. Students and teachers receive more flexibility with their schedule, which may create more time to rest. It might also mean less time at home, more disciplinary issues, and less family contact. Because of the logistics required for this format, the districts which benefit the most from it will likely always be the small, rural schools.

The Pros and Cons of a Four-Day School Week

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Across the United States, several school districts have begun to explore, experiment with, and embrace a shift to a four-day school week. Just a decade ago this shift would have been unimaginable. However, the landscape is changing thanks to several factors including a slight change in public perception.

Perhaps the biggest shift giving leeway to the adoption of a four-day school week is that an increasing number of states have passed legislation giving schools the flexibility to substitute the number of instructional days for instructional hours . The standard requirement for schools is 180 days or an average range of 990-1080 hours. Schools are able to switch to a four-day week by simply increasing the length of their school day. Students are still getting the same amount of instruction in terms of minutes, just in a shorter number of days.

Too Early to Tell

The shift to a four-day school week is so new that the research to support or oppose the trend is inconclusive at this point. The truth is that more time is needed to answer the most pressing question. Everyone wants to know how a four-day school week will impact student performance , but conclusive data to answer that question simply does not exist at this point.

While the jury is still out on its impact on student performance, there are several clear pros and cons of moving to a four-day school week. The fact remains that the needs of every community are different. School leaders must carefully weigh any decision to move to four-day weekend seeking out community feedback on the topic through the use of surveys and public forums. They must publicize and examine the pros and cons associated with this move. It may turn out to be the best option for one district and not another.

Saving School Districts Money

Moving to a four-day school week saves the district money . Most schools that have chosen to move to a four-day school week do so because of the financial benefits. That one extra day saves money in the areas of transportation, food services, utilities, and some areas of personnel. Though the amount of savings can be argued, every dollar matters and schools are always looking to pinch pennies.

A four-day school week can improve student and teacher attendance. Appointments for doctors, dentists, and home maintenance services are able to be scheduled on that extra day off. Doing this naturally boost attendance for both teachers and students. This improves the quality of education the student receives because they have fewer substitute teachers and are themselves in class more often.

Higher Teach Morale

Moving to a four-day school week boosts student and teacher morale . Teachers and students are happier when they have that extra day off. They come back at the start of the workweek refreshed and focused. They feel like they accomplished more over the weekend and were also able to get some extra rest. Their minds come back clearer, rested, and ready to go to work.

This also allows teachers more time for planning and collaboration. Many teachers are using the day off for professional development and preparation for the upcoming week. They are able to research and put together higher quality lessons and activities. Furthermore, some schools are using the day off for structured collaboration where teachers work and plan together as a team.

Better Quality of Life for Families

The change can provide students and teachers more time with their families. Family time is an important part of American culture. Many parents and teachers are using the extra day off as a family day for activities such as exploring a museum, hiking, shopping, or traveling. The extra day has given families the chance to bond and do things that would not have been able to otherwise.

Teachers Already on Board

The change can be a great recruiting tool for attracting and hiring new teachers . The majority of teachers are on board with the move to a four-day school week. It is an attractive element that many teachers are happy to jump on. School districts that have moved to a four-day week often find that their pool of potential candidates is higher in quality than it was before the move.

Evidence Against a Four-Day School Week

Moving to a four-day school week increases the length of the school day. The trade-off for a shorter week is a longer school day. Many schools are adding thirty minutes to both the beginning and end of the school day. This extra hour can make the day pretty long especially for younger students, which can often lead to a loss of focus later in the day. Another drawback to a longer school day is that it gives students less time in the evening to participate in extracurricular activities .

Shifting Costs to Parents

Moving to a four-day school week also has many drawbacks. The first of which is that it shifts a financial burden to parents. Childcare for that extra day off can become a major financial burden for working parents. Parents of younger students, in particular, may be forced to pay for costly daycare services. In addition, parents must provide meals, typically provided by the school, on that day off.

Student Accountability

The extra day off may also lead to less accountability for some students. Many students may be unsupervised on the extra day off. The lack of supervision translates to less accountability which could potentially lead to some reckless and dangerous situations. This is especially true for students whose parents work and make the decision to allow their children to stay home by themselves in lieu of structured childcare.

Moving to a four-day school week will potentially increase the amount of homework a student receives. Teachers will have to resist the urge to increase the amount of homework that they give to their students. The longer school day will give students less time in the evenings to complete any homework. Teachers must approach homework cautiously, limiting homework during the school week and potentially giving them assignments to work on over the weekend.

Still A Divisive Subject

Moving to a four-day school week can divide a community. There is no denying that the potential move to a four-day school week is a sensitive and divisive topic. There will be constituents on both sides of the aisle, but little is accomplished when there is contention. In difficult financial times, schools must examine all cost-saving options. Members of the community elect school board members to make difficult choices and they ultimately must trust those decisions.

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Introducing a 4-day school week—everything you need to know.

The field of education is full of trends. Different schools and teachers try different approaches, which are copied across the country and even the world. One of the most intriguing new trends in the education field is the idea of a 4-day school week.

At first thought, the benefits seem like they would be obvious. Less time with students in school could cut down on hours for teachers (hopefully retaining teachers long term). Other obvious benefits include additional "free" time for students to pursue their interests, work on extracurricular activities, or even allow them time to work at a part-time job without burning out.

Like many educational trends, however, there are some drawbacks, and the benefits may not be as significant. Still, the recent pandemic has caused schools and districts to get creative with their solutions. Below, we will address where 4-day school weeks are being used, how the system has worked, and its drawbacks for students, teachers, parents, and school districts.

How Does a 4-day School Week Impact Instructional Time?

This is often the first question when this concept is introduced. How do students "get back" that extra day of education? Well, the answer is straightforward, though not perfect. Districts add extra instructional time to the other four days of the week.

For most states, there is a minimum requirement of instructional time in a school week. This requirement applies to 4-day weeks as well, though 4-day districts typically have less instructional time overall than traditional 5-day districts. Another tactic used to make up for this missing time is offering free enrichment and tutoring activities on the non-school weekday.

Where are 4-day School Weeks Used Currently?

Four-day school weeks have been implemented in over 500 districts and over 20 states. The districts with 4-day school weeks are generally low-population, rural areas. While there are 4-day programs in several states, they are concentrated predominantly in three states.

Over half of the current 4-day school weeks are in Colorado, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Montana. More than half of Colorado's districts use a 4-day school week schedule, though it is a small percentage of the total student population. As mentioned earlier, education often follows trends, so it makes sense that these districts have borrowed ideas from their neighbors.

Benefits of a 4-day School Week

There are many potential benefits of a 4-day school week. The first is cost; districts can cut transportation, staffing, and nutrition spending. Another major benefit is improved attendance. One of the biggest issues for school districts is hiring and retaining stellar teachers. A 4-day school week can help attract desirable candidates away from traditional 5-day school districts. A final benefit is a somewhat obvious one. With no school on Friday (or Monday), students can schedule doctor's appointments on those days and, therefore, not miss any important time in the classroom.

Shortcomings of a 4-day School Week

If a 4-day school week worked perfectly, the entire country would have adopted it by now. However, there are some drawbacks. With four days instead of five, school hours have to be expanded. This means longer days for students, which can be difficult for any student, particularly elementary schoolers.

Another concern with the 4-day plan is childcare on the fifth day. While many 4-day school districts offer free childcare on the extra weekday, transportation is often not provided. Another drawback is for students who depend on free school lunches. These drawbacks may explain why this system has been used most effectively in rural areas with smaller numbers of students.

How do 4-day School Weeks Affect Parents, Teachers, and Districts?

A 4-day school week affects students, teachers, parents, and school districts. A major factor for many parents is childcare on the fifth weekday. Many schools offer free childcare these days. According to Rand.org , most parents (84%) prefer a 4-day school week over the traditional five. The effects on teachers can be seen as well. Most teachers prefer a 4-day system. This leads to another benefit for districts; they can attract and keep skilled candidates on staff.

Rand.org found a 4-day week had other positive effects on:

Reduced parental stress
Improved student mental health
Improved school climate
Improved student attendance
Improved teacher attendance
Improved behavioral and emotional well-being

Final Thoughts

As you explore the pros and cons of introducing a 4-day school week, gather input from all demographics involved, including students.

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Could a four-day school week work in Tennessee? Here's what to know

While four-day school weeks are becoming increasingly common across the United States, they also remain controversial.

Around 850 districts nationwide operate on four-day school weeks, up from 600 in 2020, according to a 2023 report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Advocates say the shorter weeks help with recruiting and retaining teachers, giving them more time for things like lesson planning and grading. They can also give students more time for extracurricular activities. Critics say shorter school weeks can cut key instructional time and lead to academic shortfalls, along with creating challenges when it comes to child care and social and emotional development, among other things.

Could a four-day school week work in Tennessee? Here are a few things to consider.

What Tennessee requires

Tennessee law mandates 180 instructional days per school year that are at least 6.5 hours long. Schools run five days a week for a little over nine months, usually from early August through mid-May.

While a district could, in theory, extend existing school days and still meet requirements, it grows complicated when factoring in time for extracurricular activities and things like lunch, recess, breaks, teacher training days and holidays. That could push districts to a nearly year-round schedule.

States with four-day school weeks tend to have lower thresholds for instructional days or more flexibility in how they meet requirements.

Why a four-day school week?

Researchers Paul Thompson and Emily Morton, who have both studied four-day school weeks since 2017, said districts used to cite cost savings as the reason to switch. But those savings have proven to be minimal, if not zero, Morton said. As a teacher shortage and the pandemic roiled the school system in recent years, districts have increasingly said teacher recruitment and retention is the main goal of a shorter school week.

What are the drawbacks?

While the four-day week may appeal to incoming teachers, Thompson warned that it can also put a strain on current teachers who must restructure their entire curriculum to fit into four-day weeks.

"That's costly for teachers to try to do, at least in the short term," Thompson said, adding that he's seen some leave their jobs over it.

He also said districts that shorten the total number of hours children receive instruction in a year have seen dips in academic outcomes. Those who lengthen school days to keep hours up have seen scores hold largely steady.

Child care for working families can also be an issue.

But so far, Morton said four-day school weeks have been predominantly rural school phenomena. As she’s traveled to schools nationwide, she’s seen smaller, rural communities offsetting child care needs by leaning on family members who live nearby. She also said schools are often a main employer in small towns, meaning parents are more likely to end up with the same schedule as their children.

Applying a four-day school week to a larger, more complex district paints a more difficult picture, Morton said. Save for a few suburban districts, large districts have not adopted the model.

Leader of largest four-day school week district in U.S. weighs in

With nearly 25,000 students, the 27J School District in Colorado is the largest district to roll out a four-day school week in the nation. The district, which sits just outside Denver, made the change in 2018. Its main goal was to boost teacher recruitment and retention.

Superintendent Will Pierce said he’s seen a lot of success on that front, with teacher turnover going from 23% in 2018 to just 11% last year. He said nearly all the district's jobs are filled and openings are often met with a competitive pool of candidates. Additionally, teacher and parent surveys have resoundingly affirmed the shorter weeks.

After securing a waiver from the state of Colorado, the district was able to move to 150 instructional days per year. However, Pierce said it still maintains the same amount of total instructional hours as five-day districts, if not more.

The schools run from Tuesday through Friday. The district also offers a day care option on Mondays that costs $15 for the day. Still, Pierce said there has been surprisingly low demand for it, with less than 150 families seeking it out last year.

Coordinating things like athletic schedules and fine-tuning curriculum to fit into a shorter week were among the greatest challenges.

"Every day is precious to us," Pierce said.

So what about academic performance?

Pierce said the district has dropped slightly in overall academic outcomes since 2018. But with the lingering effects of the pandemic and an increase in children experiencing poverty in the district, he isn't convinced the four-day week is the reason for the drop. He also said some schools in the same neighborhood as 27J schools have seen similar declines.

"This is the hardest question for us to quantify," he said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Could Tennessee move to four-day school weeks? What to know

COMMENTS

The Four-Day School Week: Are the Pros Worth the Cons?
Yet by 2019, over 1,600 schools were on a four-day schedule. There are no signs that the pace is slowing. Missouri is one of the newest states to see exponential growth in the adoption of this policy. In 2009, no district in the state had a four-day school week; but, as of the 2022-23 school year, about 25 percent are now on that schedule.
The four-day school week: Research behind the trend
Summary: Oklahoma high schools saw less fighting and bullying among students after switching from a five-day-a-week schedule to a four-day schedule, this study finds. Fighting declined by 0.79 incidents per 100 students and bullying dropped by 0.65 incidents per 100 students.
4-Day School Weeks: New Research Examines the Benefits ...
More than 1,600 districts have 4-day weeks. While students report more time for sleep and hobbies, academics lag, according to a new study.
Persuasive Essay: Four Day School Week
Persuasive Essay: Four Day School Week. 1008 Words5 Pages. Four Day Week. Most children all around the world can all agree on one thing, school is awful. Around one-hundred of the country's, fifteen-thousand school districts currently use the four day school week. Schools should all convert to four day weeks for the following reasons.
Common Arguments for and Against the Four-Day School Week
Cons: How This Could Decrease Academic Achievement. One fewer day per week means less structure and less time a student is thinking about school. A longer weekend means less repetitions per week of material, which may make it harder for it to "stick.". 50% of schools that use a 4dsw report being completely closed on the fifth day, while 30% ...
12 Pros and Cons of a 4 Day School Week
2. It may improve overall student attendance. The Melstone School District in Montana also shifted to a 4-day school week. Over the course of a 2-year period on this alternative schedule, they reported up to a 20% increase in student attendance. There were also reduced sick days requested by their teaching staff.
4-day school weeks: Educational innovation or detriment?
However, emergent research on the four-day school week may allow us to better assess its effectiveness as a school model in post-pandemic educational policy. Recent survey findings show that four ...
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As educators and policymakers continue to debate the use of shortened school weeks, here are four studies to know about how they can affect students and schools. 1. Maintaining instructional time ...
PROOF POINTS: Seven new studies on the impact of a four-day school week
The answer matters because hundreds of thousands of students at more than 1,600 schools across 24 states were heading to school only four times a week by the spring of 2019, according to one estimate. The number of four-day schools had exploded by more than 600 percent from 20 years earlier in 1999, when only about 250 schools had four-day weeks.
News, sport and opinion from the Guardian's US edition
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19 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of the 4 Day School Week
Moving to the 4-day schedule shifts student movement patterns, reducing the number of lost transition minutes. 2. Students can adjust to the new schedule. An understandable concern for parents, teachers, and students about the 4-day school week is the extended time required to be at school during the day.
The Pros and Cons of a Four-Day School Week
Perhaps the biggest shift giving leeway to the adoption of a four-day school week is that an increasing number of states have passed legislation giving schools the flexibility to substitute the number of instructional days for instructional hours.The standard requirement for schools is 180 days or an average range of 990-1080 hours.
Introducing a 4-Day School Week—Everything You Need to Know
A 4-day school week affects students, teachers, parents, and school districts. A major factor for many parents is childcare on the fifth weekday. Many schools offer free childcare these days. According to Rand.org, most parents (84%) prefer a 4-day school week over the traditional five. The effects on teachers can be seen as well.
Free Argumentative Essays: The Four-Day School Week
The four-day school week, first adopted in the 1930s when U.S. was in the throes of the Great Depression, saw a resurgence during the energy crisis of the 1970s. Eventually, the four-day plan was implemented by rural communities, in order to save money on transportation, heating, janitorial, and clerical costs.
Argumentative Essay: Four Day School Week
Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week. This eventually leads to better standardized testing scores district wide. Merryville High School in Louisiana, "has seen average ACT scores school wide rise from 18.7 to 20 in just four years of having the four day schedule. Honor roll students in middle and high school have also doubled" (Chmelynski).
How would you write an essay arguing for a four-day school week
Expert Answers. This essay is an opinion paper on why school should be four days a week, and you must first decide on a thesis statement and reasons why the school week should change. Your thesis ...
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In the article, The Four Day School Week, by Don Kordosky, the author states, " Attendance in some schools increased 3% as against available instructional hours" (Crosscut: "The Four-day school week: why less really is more"). These results show yet another reason why we should have a four days school week. Furthermore, attendance is great ...
Argumentative Essay: The Four-Day School Week
Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week. 949 Words; 4 Pages; Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week. A 4-day Week May Be the Solution How does a three day weekend sound? As a student, a three day weekend sounds awesome! With budget cuts, schools have been desperately trying to find a solution and a four-day school week may just be it.
Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week
Merryville High School in Louisiana, "has seen average ACT scores school wide rise from 18.7 to 20 in just four years of having the four day schedule. Honor roll students in middle and high school have also doubled" (Chmelynski). Also, according to the table on page 82 of Yarbrough's article, test scores on the CTBS improved after moving ...
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A Four day school week is a great idea for many reasons. Flexibility to teachers and students and reducing student and teacher absences. As well as happier morale, saving money, and academic improvement throughout the school week. Flexibility to teachers and students is a big reason why schools and districts are making the change.
Argumentative Essay: Four Day School Week
Schools should have a four day school week for many reasons that will all be in this essay. The relationship of the teachers and students will be better because they will have a longer break. (Bradley). Teachers and students will have more time to rest and sleep in. Students will have a chance to get an after- school job.
Could a four-day school week work in Tennessee? Here's what to know
Leader of largest four-day school week district in U.S. weighs in. With nearly 25,000 students, the 27J School District in Colorado is the largest district to roll out a four-day school week in the nation. The district, which sits just outside Denver, made the change in 2018. Its main goal was to boost teacher recruitment and retention.
Four Day School Week Essay
Four Day School Week Essay. 893 Words4 Pages. Four-day school weeks have the capability to change student lives. Every school should invest in the four-day school week plan. Implementing this routine would allow teachers more time to teach and give students the option to do their homework during class, in turn creating student success.
argumentative essay the four-day school week
The traditional five-day school week has been the norm for generations. However, in recent years, a revolutionary concept has gained traction: the four-day school week. This seemingly simple change holds immense potential to transform the educational landscape for the better.